Income

The head of an Australian financial service firm's life operations, Richard Howes, is an advocate of compulsory annuitization . Howes believes that 30 percent of retirement funding should be compulsorily assigned to guaranteed income streams--in other words to annuities. Howes also suggests that the relatively slow take-up of annuities in the Australian market is a result of investors who have been conditioned by a uninterrupted 20 year bull market in equities. Howes spells-out the case for...

The use of annuities in 401k plans is an issue receiving quite a bit of attention lately. Experts, policy makers and industry analysts understand the clear need for guaranteed income options for people who have their savings built-up in 401k plans and individual retirement accounts (IRAs): “I think one of the top goals of the new (Obama) administration is to find a way to annuitize or at least guarantee or secure some sort of income in retirement,” said Mr. Davies. “That's really the final...

A recent Wall Street Journal article indicates that the number of government-backed reverse mortgages has increased 20% from the same period last year. This stands in contrast to the number of new home equity loans which decreased 70% from the same period last year. The increased interest in reverse mortgages is directly related to the fall-out from the financial crisis. Seniors who have suffered as a result of decreasing asset values in the capital markets see home equity as a potentially...

A House bill introduced by Representative Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D., would affect the tax treatment of certain annuities and income from IRAs. H.R. 2748, the Retirement Security Needs Lifetime Pay Act, would create a tax exemption for 50% of the income drawn from a non-qualified annuity. The exemption would be capped at $10,000 per year. The bill would also create a 25% tax exemption for income payments from an individual retirement account (IRA). Last, the bill would exclude the value of longevity...